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Thursday, 10 November 2016

Guest Blog: The Future of Stories in Virtual Reality

At Develop:VR this year, Pete Short from Breaking Fourth is going to be speaking about The Future of Stories in
Virtual Reality. This topic is something which the London based VR studio is
incredibly passionate about, particularly while there are still no hard and
fast rules for VR storytelling.

Breaking Fourth released Ctrl this year, the world’s first scripted long-form VR drama
designed specifically for mobile VR. This production has seen great success,
being showcased around the world at events like Oculus Connect 3 and
Toronto International Film Festival and being nominated for multiple innovation and VR awards. Ctrl is currently the only piece of it’s
kind available in virtual reality, using a combination of CGI and live action
footage to tell a dark, challenging story about the life of a teenage boy. The
audience is dropped directly inside a video game (an impossible challenge for
any other medium) and the drama in his outside world is shown via the clever
use of webcam screens into his home. Full review available here.

So what should you expect to find out in
this talk? Well, the future of stories in virtual reality is a vast topic which
could touch on many different areas. During the production of Ctrl, we learned
through trial and error what does and doesn’t work in this new medium. Taking
techniques from the theatre and combining them with influences from games +
cinema, we explored a multitude of different narrative techniques, culminating
in a dark, emotional piece which splits audiences. Virtual Reality, by it’s
nature, confronts the viewer with the content - forces you to watch and listen,
and often results in increased emotional connection with the story and
self-reflection on the situation. We sum up our thoughts on what was successful
from our research and what are our new VR storytelling techniques that we now
can’t live without.

Aside from narrative + storytelling
techniques, in this talk Pete will explore whether this kind of content is what
audiences want. Who are the current VR audiences and how do we cater to their
needs while pushing boundaries with content that is available? Do VR audiences
even know what it is that they are hungry for? What will audiences want in the
future?

What does this all mean for the future of
stories in virtual reality according to Breaking Fourth? Content is always
quoted as the driving factor for VR.
This is and isn’t the case - High-quality, transformational, challenging
and interesting content is the driving factor for VR. As John Carmack mentioned
in his keynote speech at OC3 this year, it’s time for VR to stop being a gimmick and to start pushing boundaries. Pete hopes to share some
insight on how content creators can enter this space and be creating content
that will rival stories told through TV and film.

A short demo of Ctrl will also be
available in the IndieZone at DevelopVR.